Similar in plot to her past works (Circle of Grace and The Blue Bottle Club, not reviewed), although fans aren’t likely to...
Four friends under varying degrees of desperate circumstances meet at their 25-year college reunion..
As payback for a practical joke (the “Burma-Shave incident”), freshman Delta Fox mischievously signs up three friends to participate in the fall talent show as the Delta Belles All-Girl Folk Band. It’s 1965 and the group sings—in long blonde wigs, à la Mary Travers—“Blowin’ in the Wind,” with “If I Had a Hammer” as an encore. The group is a hit, and continues to play shows until graduation, and the girls—affable Delta Fox, mysterious Rae Dawn DuChamp and North Carolina twins Lauren and Lacy Cantrell—deepen their friendships. Their lives are somewhat messy: Rae Dawn reveals her trailer-park beginnings, while Lauren, jealous of her sister’s happiness, seduces her sibling’s boyfriend on a secluded bank in the park. Despite their closeness, the Delta Belles lose touch after graduation until their 25th reunion, when Delta’s little sister orchestrates a gathering of the quartet. She’s worried about her sister: Delta’s husband, pastor Rankin Ballou, was recently murdered by a wife-battering ex-member of his congregation in front of his beloved wife of 23 years. The Delta Belles rally to the rescue and the plot thickens. Will Rae Dawn reunite with her lover, Noel? Will Delta regain her faith in God? And will the twins finally reconcile and regain their closeness? Stokes’s Christian readership may be dismayed by Lauren’s premarital sex and resulting pregnancy, and Rae Dawn’s lesbianism (though the topic is handled with empathy and skill).
Similar in plot to her past works (Circle of Grace and The Blue Bottle Club, not reviewed), although fans aren’t likely to complain.Pub Date: June 13, 2006
ISBN: 0-385-51014-4
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2006
These letters from some important executive Down Below, to one of the junior devils here on earth, whose job is to corrupt mortals, are witty and written in a breezy style seldom found in religious literature. The author quotes Luther, who said: "The best way to drive out the devil, if he will not yield to texts of Scripture, is to jeer and flout him, for he cannot bear scorn." This the author does most successfully, for by presenting some of our modern and not-so-modern beliefs as emanating from the devil's headquarters, he succeeds in making his reader feel like an ass for ever having believed in such ideas. This kind of presentation gives the author a tremendous advantage over the reader, however, for the more timid reader may feel a sense of guilt after putting down this book. It is a clever book, and for the clever reader, rather than the too-earnest soul.
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 1942
ISBN: 0060652934
Page Count: 53
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 17, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1943
Hoffman (The Red Garden, 2011, etc.) births literature from tragedy: the destruction of Jerusalem's Temple, the siege of Masada and the loss of Zion.
This is a feminist tale, a story of strong, intelligent women wedded to destiny by love and sacrifice. Told in four parts, the first comes from Yael, daughter of Yosef bar Elhanan, a Sicarii Zealot assassin, rejected by her father because of her mother's death in childbirth. It is 70 CE, and the Temple is destroyed. Yael, her father, and another Sicarii assassin, Jachim ben Simon, and his family flee Jerusalem. Hoffman's research renders the ancient world real as the group treks into Judea's desert, where they encounter Essenes, search for sustenance and burn under the sun. There too Jachim and Yael begin a tragic love affair. At Masada, Yael is sent to work in the dovecote, gathering eggs and fertilizer. She meets Shirah, her daughters, and Revka, who narrates part two. Revka's husband was killed when Romans sacked their village. Later, her daughter was murdered. At Masada, caring for grandsons turned mute by tragedy, Revka worries over her scholarly son-in-law, Yoav, now consumed by vengeance. Aziza, daughter of Shirah, carries the story onward. Born out of wedlock, Aziza grew up in Moab, among the people of the blue tunic. Her passion and curse is that she was raised as a warrior by her foster father. In part four, Shirah tells of her Alexandrian youth, the cherished daughter of a consort of the high priests. Shirah is a keshaphim, a woman of amulets, spells and medicine, and a woman connected to Shechinah, the feminine aspect of God. The women are irretrievably bound to Eleazar ben Ya'ir, Masada's charismatic leader; Amram, Yael's brother; and Yoav, Aziza's companion and protector in battle. The plot is intriguingly complex, with only a single element unresolved. An enthralling tale rendered with consummate literary skill.
Pub Date: Oct. 4, 2011
ISBN: 978-1-4516-1747-4
Page Count: 512
Publisher: Scribner
Review Posted Online: April 5, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2011
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